


Ichigo Ichie

by heros_wings



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: AU, Fantasy, M/M, fairy tale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-28
Updated: 2015-08-28
Packaged: 2018-04-17 18:18:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4676585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heros_wings/pseuds/heros_wings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hansel and Gretel will never be the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ichigo Ichie

When I talk to **[boonies](http://archiveofourown.org/users/boonies) ** these things happen.

 

* * *

 

Once upon a time, there were two boys who lived in a village on the edge of a magical forest.

Kim Junsu, the oldest by 2 years, had always wanted a little brother, because while being a twin was great, he was the younger of the two. And though Junho often helped with chores usually given to the youngest, Junsu wished he had someone else to do them so he could play soccer instead.

His wish came true when their mother remarried a man who had a son named Changmin. Junsu's plans, however, had been ruined the moment he asked his new little brother to pick strawberries so that they may sell them at the market.

"Nah," came the nonchalant answer, as Changmin picked a single strawberry from a nearby plant and hurried off to probably pilfer bread from the Kims' bakery.

Over the years, Junsu begged Yoochun, his best friend, to trade little brothers. To which Yoochun responded by dragging Yoohwan away with a possessive glare.

 

Changmin never wanted an older brother. He whined and complained to his father when he announced he would soon have _two_. They would force him to do chores and treat him like a little kid (he was 8, that was practically an adult!), and even worse — eat his food. With three extra people in his family, he was sure there wouldn't be enough.

Shortly after he and his father moved to the small strawberry farm, Changmin realized it wasn't so hard manipulating his new brothers. Junho doted on him (perhaps a little too much) and Junsu gave in easily.

 

After a year, Changmin had already forgotten what life was like without brothers. He even grudgingly began to like them.

 

One night, Junsu and Changmin overheard their mother and father talking in low voices. Their family was struggling with the severe drought that year, and having lost half their crop, they were forced to stretch their food rations to feed three young boys as well as themselves. To make things worse, they awoke that morning to find all of their strawberries gone.

Someone had stolen them and left a basket of rocks in the middle of their garden. Whether the rocks were supposed to be payment (there were many magical creatures with odd customs humans did not fully understand), a taunt, or something of a calling card, they did not know.

"If only they were a bit older..." Junsu's mother sighed, "Junsu and Junho could take Changmin and they could live together."

Changmin's father sighed as well. "We will have to make do with what we can," he let out a small, unhappy chuckle, "we can't very well abandon them in the woods."

Startled, they went to bed, neither falling asleep until well after their parents retired for the night.

 

"We have to find the thief." Junsu stormed into their shared bedroom the next morning, where Changmin was still sleeping despite the sun having risen well above the horizon. 

Changmin opened one bleary eye and glared at him. "Hnn?"

Junsu yanked the covers off.

"The thief," he explained, "we have to find the thief and make him give back our strawberries."

Still half asleep, Changmin stumbled as Junsu dragged him out of bed. "Hyung, they've probably already eaten or sold—"

"I bet it was Jaejoong," Junsu growled, throwing Changmin a random tunic, "he was begging for a discount the other day..."

Sighing, Changmin dressed, stomach growling as he followed Junsu out of the house. If Jaejoong _did_ steal their strawberries, he was going to eat the entire batch of pastries or cake he made with them.

Jaejoong, it turned out, did not steal their strawberries. In fact, he told them, someone stole his family's most prized recipe book and left a basket of rocks in its place.

They checked the market, and still did not find their strawberries. Defeated, they returned home.

 

The next morning Junsu shook him awake. This time just as the sun rose above the horizon.

"We gotta check the woods."

"No one lives in the woods," Changmin muttered, burying his head under his pillow.

"It's the only explanation."

Groaning, Changmin dressed, and trudged behind Junsu, wondering why he was even going along with his brother's ridiculous quest.

"Why'd you bring those?" he asked, grumpily jabbing his finger at the basket of rocks Junsu was carrying.

Junsu dropped a rock as they walked through the woods. "To mark our path so we don't get lost."

"Do you even have any idea where we're going?" Changmin grumbled hours later, when Junsu's final rock dropped. They were well and clearly lost.

Junsu glanced around. "Of course...we're..."

"Lost."

Disgruntled, hungry, and wondering if their parents would miss Junsu if Changmin just left him in the woods, he spun on his heel and stalked back the way they came.

"There's a cottage!" Junsu's voice shouted behind him.

Changmin walked on, but Junsu's hand reached out and pulled him back by the neck of his tunic.

Choking, he fought free, straightened, and looked to where Junsu was pointing. Some ways to their right, the trees thinned, and a small cottage peaked through.

Excited, because he thought this must be the thief's home, Junsu grabbed the front of Changmin's tunic and marched forward.

As they got closer, Changmin realized something odd about the cottage. At first it was the bright reds, pinks, and white that caught his eye. They slowed to a stop, and he realized he was seeing a house made entirely of candy and—

He glanced at the roof.

—strawberries.

 _Their_ strawberries.

Rather than storming up to the cottage and demanding the return of their strawberries (though that looked rather impossible), Junsu had gone oddly still.

Fighting the urge to...maybe test whether the candy house was edible, Changmin nudged him.

"Hyung...aren't you going to—"

"—nope."

Once again grabbing Changmin, Junsu pulled him back to their trail of rocks.

Confused and kind of really disappointed, Changmin said, "I thought you wanted to catch the thief!"

"They can have the strawberries," Junsu said, speeding up, "that's a witch's house. Witches make houses out of candy to lure little kids and eat them."

"Where did you hear that?" Changmin asked incredulously, because it sounded ridiculous — kind of like a house made of candy.

So Junsu may have had a point.

 

It didn't keep Changmin's curiosity from getting the better of him the next day.

He snuck a piece of bread from the Kims' bakery — right off the cooling rack — and headed for the woods.

The rock trail had somehow disappeared, and so Changmin began dropping pieces of bread, a small jab of regret poking at his stomach with every crumb that hit the ground.

At last, Changmin found the cottage again, just as pristine as the day before. It reminded him of the strawberry cakes Jaejoong sometimes let him steal from his parents' bakery.

Though he hadn't thought much about Junsu's dire warning that a witch lived in the delicious looking cottage, standing at the gate, staring down the cobblestone path that seemed to be made of hardened caramel, he hesitated.

Then the door opened, and out popped the head of a smiling boy who looked about Junsu's age.

"Ah!" The head smiled and was soon followed by a lanky body as the boy bounded down the steps like an overexcited puppy. "A visitor!"

Eyes widening, Changmin's mind screamed at him to step back. To run. But his feet remained firmly on the ground. His heart illogically racing in anticipation as the boy came to a stop in front of him. Surely... _this_ couldn't be the witch.

This...boy...with a happy smile, sun-kissed skin, and black hair pulled back into a messy pony tail...

"What's your name?" the boy asked.

When Changmin didn't respond, the boy introduced himself instead. "I'm Yunho!"

The only word that Changmin seemed able to produce was, "...strawberries."

And that was how Changmin was dragged past the gate, up the caramel path, past a gum drop garden, and plopped into a chair at a kitchen table with a basket of rocks in the center of it. The same ones that had been left in their garden.

"Rocks?" Yunho blinked adorably, making Changmin's cheeks go pink as he pointed at the basket.

"Those are rolls!"

Changmin stared at the basket. Those were definitely not rolls.

"We thought they were rocks..." he mumbled, half apologetic, half worried about Yunho's teeth but mostly worried about his, when he took one anyway.

He nearly chipped a tooth.

He carefully placed the roll back on his plate and stared longingly at the kitchen window, which was made of finely spun sugar with chocolate shutters.

Oblivious, Yunho rattled on about how long it had been since he had a visitor and how the last time someone stopped by, Taepoong had scared him so severely, no one had come since.

"I think he must have told everyone," Yunho said sadly, placing a sketchy cup of tea in front of Changmin — it looked more like muddy water. "But Taepoongie is harmless he's just...a little protective since I live out here all alone."

Changmin made the mistake of asking what a "Taepoongie" was.

"My dragon!" Yunho chirped happily.

"Your..." he started but thought better of it, "...right...sure...your dragon...of course..."

He decided was better not to ask where "Taepoongie" currently was.

"So...er..." he shifted awkwardly, because it was Junsu who was most determined to catch the thief, and Changmin kind of just wanted to feed him proper rolls and maybe bring him home instead. "Our...strawberries..."

Yunho blinked, adorably confused. "Your...?" His eyes widened in realization and he bit his lip guiltily. "I...I'm sorry I didn't...I mean Taepoong can't travel during the day...the knights shoot arrows at him and he's not old enough to assume his lesser form yet...he has to be at least seven before he can and..." he trailed off with an apologetic look. "Did he not bring you enough rolls? I can give you more...I didn't want you be hungry..."

Pushing away the thought of a _dragon_ entering the village and dropping baskets of rocks-disguised-as-rolls without anyone noticing, Changmin replied with a quick, "that's ok—" he stood "—keep the strawberries..."

Yunho's smile fell. "You're leaving?"

Changmin glanced out the window. The sun was slowly setting and while part of him was mildly curious about the dumb boy living alone in a house made of stolen strawberries with a pet dragon, the other, more sensible part, told him boys living in edible houses, who had pet dragons, were probably to be avoided.

So he compromised.

"I'll come back tomorrow," he promised.

 

He returned the next day. This time with a loaf of bread and a pitcher of tea he may or may not have stolen from the Kims.

As the years went by, Changmin and Yunho practiced baking rolls until they no longer resembled rocks.

Taepoong, Yunho's inky black dragon, had taken an uncanny, immediate liking to Changmin, and had even started escorting him back to the village every night. By Yunho's 18th birthday, Taepoong was able to shrink down to the size of a lizard or a large dog if he chose. Some nights he would scurry into Changmin's pocket and spend the night running around his family's strawberry garden, chasing gnomes and fairies, until Changmin returned him to Yunho the next day.

Junsu was the only person who seemed to have noticed — or cared about — Changmin's strange behavior. Their parents simply shrugged.

"At least he's not like that Park Yoochun boy who won't leave his house," said Changmin's father.

But Junsu wasn't convinced, and followed Changmin into the woods one day.

Changmin, always observant, was thinking about the smile he would receive when he showed Yunho the jar of honey he had stolen out of his family's kitchen, and didn't noticed Junsu hurrying from tree to tree, keeping hidden as he followed.

A small strawberry patch — filled mostly with plants stolen from his own  garden — now grew in front of the gum drop garden on either side of the caramel path. The moment he stepped beyond the gate, Yunho came bounding out, a bright smile on his face — just like the day they met.

Changmin schooled his expression into something mildly exasperated even as his heart leapt with each step Yunho took towards him.

He waited for the usual hug, but Yunho slowed to a stop and stared over Changmin's shoulder, mouth turned into a curious frown, head tilted to one side.

"Oh...did you...bring a friend?"

Changmin spun and saw Junsu, wide-eyed and gaping at the house. Then his eyes found Yunho.

"YOU'RE THE THIEF!"

Yunho let out an awkward, "ha..." and scratched the back of his head, "would you like some tea?"

 

An hour later, Junsu was cradling his untouched tea and squinting suspiciously at Yunho as Taepoong bounced excitedly around the table, no larger than a kitten. 

"You're...not a witch..."

"Not...technically...no...my grandmother..."

Junsu stared at him. After a short pause he said, "we need our plants back."

Yunho's shoulders sagged, and Junsu went on a long speech about theft and justice, and how if Yunho wanted strawberries, he should purchase them like everyone else. Thirty seconds in, Changmin pulled Yunho out of his chair and dragged him outside with a pointed, "there's a new species of strawberry that's sweeter...I brought you some."

 

Whenever Changmin left to visit Yunho after that, Junsu would demand he return with the strawberry plants.

Changmin only stole more.

 

There was, however, one thing Changmin was always curious about...

"Why do you live here?"

Yunho, who was mixing a new batch of cake batter, looked at him, bangs clipped to the top of his head to keep them out of his eyes. Changmin's breath left him.

After a long pause, in which they stared over the bowl of too-thin batter, he replied with a shrug. "Family duty."

He was lying. Changmin could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. He let it go.

 

The next day, he asked about the house. "Can you eat it?"

Yunho paused halfway through butchering the newly picked strawberries from his garden.

"Eat what?" he asked carefully.

Changmin gestured around the house. "This...obviously."

Yunho dumped the strawberries into a bowl, oddly morose. "No."

Another lie.

 

When Yunho turned 20, and just after Changmin's 18th birthday, something very strange happened — he heard voices just beyond the door of the cottage. 

Then it opened, and there stood an old woman whose head barely reached Changmin's chest, but when she glared up at him, he felt as though she were eye level.

"You must be Changmin," she spoke in a clipped tone that reminded him of a teacher he once had, who particularly disliked him.

He glanced over the woman and saw Yunho standing behind her with a gloomy expression.

"Yes?" He looked back at the woman.

"I'm Yunho's grandmother," the woman said, "you're going to need to stop coming." She pointed at the strawberries. "Those may stay...it will be considered part of the dowry."

A vein twitched just above his eye. "What?"

"The dowry," she said, waving an unconcerned hand. "He was supposed to be married upon turning 17, but the girl went to the wrong cabin and was eaten by a wicked witch," she sighed, "but we found a new one and she is staying in the village...the wedding will be this weekend...once they've each taken a bite from the house, they will officially be wed."

Changmin stared at her, a black, murderous aura flowing off him and wrapping possessively around Yunho.

"They have to eat the house..."

 _"Part_ of the house," she replied impatiently, "a bite will do. No one in my family has gotten married without doing so."

He did not spend the past ten years trudging through the woods, patching accidental burns from an overenthusiastic dragon, and planting strawberries to see Yunho go to some...girl.

He spun, grabbed one of the porch's rail posts made of a honey biscotti he and Yunho made together from the Kims' recipe book, and snapped it off.

Eyes locked on Yunho's, he took a large bite. It was kind of salty and he could taste the bits of flour that hadn't completely blended, but at the moment, it was the better than anything he had ever eaten.

There was a long silence. The woman watched him finish the biscotti railing, and said, "you can eat the entire house, boy, but unless Yunho—"

A loud snap made her turn. Yunho had broken off a piece of chocolate window shudder and stuffed in his mouth.

Exasperated, the woman threw up her hands. "Fine!"

She stalked down the porch stairs, brushing past Changmin.  "Don't mind _me..._ don't mind the hundreds of years of tradition and ceremonies... _oh no_ just go lopping off chunks of a house passed down my family for _5 generations_...oh if my great-great-great grandfather could see..." she complained loudly the entire way down the caramel stone path.

When she reached the gate, she spun and pointed an accusatory finger at them. "You get to explain to your parents why they have a half giant for a son-in-law instead of a beautiful girl! No one can say I didn't try..." she spun around again and tromped through the woods, her rant still echoing, "...it's your uncle all over again I will never understand..." her voice finally trailed off, and Changmin looked at Yunho, who grinned.

"So...er..." he gave an awkward laugh, "I guess we're married."

"Not yet." Changmin pulled him forward into a deep kiss, losing himself in the taste of chocolate on his tongue.

"Now..." he breathed, "we are."

 

And they lived happily ever after.

The End.

 


End file.
